Part 1: History of ICT4D
What is ICT4D? ICT4D stands for Information Communication Technologies for Development. illuminAid is an ICT4D organization, one of many that use modern communication technology to improve the lives of people living in developing nations. ICT4D isn’t a new designation—the field has been around in some form or other since the mid-1950s though the development of the internet. In more recent years, the growth of mobile networks and alternative energy sources have vastly increased the ability of ICT4D groups to effect change throughout the world.
The history of ICT4D can be broken down into three phases: 0.0, 1.0 and 2.0. Phase 0.0, which predated modern communication technology, was the longest and most uneventful, stretching from the middle of the 20th century to the late ‘90s. With the high price of computing technologies and the difficulty in sharing information, the technology’s impact in developing countries was severely limited. It wasn’t until the late ‘90s, when the internet reached widespread use in developed countries, that ICT4D organizations could affect significant change in developing nations. The proliferation of the internet marked the transition from pre-digital 0.0 into 1.0.
